


The Fire In Her Heart

by White Aster (white_aster)



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alcohol, Found Family, Hangover, Mass Effect 3: Citadel, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:41:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28905036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/white_aster/pseuds/White%20Aster
Summary: If those three slept in much longer, Wrex would have to leave without mocking them properly, and that just wouldn't do.  He heaved himself to his feet and headed up the stairs to thump a fist on the closed bedroom door.  "Shepard!  Food!"A few groans and a lot of thumping happened inside, as if someone--or several someones--had fallen bonelessly out of bed onto the floor.(Post-Citadel party, Shepard/Garrus/Tali)
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
Comments: 8
Kudos: 54





	The Fire In Her Heart

**Author's Note:**

> My January Jubilation/Holiday Harbinger story for dinkryze, who loves found family and femShep/Tali/Garrus! \o/ I hope you enjoy. Wrex kind of muscled in with the POV here, but he seemed pointed in the right direction, so I just let him go.

Urdnot Wrex, chief of all the Clans of Tuchanka, woke face-down in a dried pool of Denorian beer, his head pounding and his mouth coated in what tasted like the Citadel's worst manufactured excuse for ryncol. He rumbled a slight groan as something flashed light over his closed eyes. When he opened them, it took a bit to realize the light was the skycars outside the window, one every now and then driving a beam of light past the glass and right into his brain. 

Citadel. Shepard's apartment. Right.

 _Good party_ , he thought, yawning wide enough to make his jaws creak.

Wrex contemplated going back to sleep, but his bladder was about ready to burst, his hump felt shriveled from dehydration, and, most importantly, he was starving. Oh, and there was probably some crisis he needed to fix. He grunted, pushing himself up, and when he felt weight on his back, he just kept pushing until it slid off with a thunk and a crunch of broken glass.

"Ow," Grunt muttered, not moving from where he'd fallen, half on his side. He slitted open one eye and winced, pulling a fallen pillow from the couch over his head. "Why is there so much light?"

"Good question", Wrex said, yawning again and going in search of a toilet, a drink, and some food. He found them in roughly that order, taking a leisurely piss, running the faucet straight into his mouth for a solid minute, and then wandering toward the smell of food in the kitchen. Vega raised a hand to him and said, "Yo, Wrex. Eggs?"

"As many as you got," Wrex said, poking through the remains of the party food on the kitchen counter. 

The human grinned, "Man, I saw how much ryncol you drank last night. I got you covered." He dumped the entire pan of eggs onto a plate and handed it to Wrex, who rumbled in approval and tossed a handful of leftover varren skewers overtop. He grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and took his breakfast over to the dining room table. Settling into a chair, he chewed contentedly for a bit and tried to gather up the desire to look at his 'tool and the unending shitshow that was no doubt waiting for him.

When Liara walked by, moving very carefully and wincing as Vega whistled something disgustingly cheerful, Wrex asked, "Shepard not up yet?"

Liara shook her head, looking through the cabinets. "Still in bed." She pulled down a mug and set it on the beverage maker, pressing a button until it started gurgling. She came to lean on the dining room table as she waited, picking over the remains of last night's feast with a smile. "It's good to see them happy."

"Good to see they figured it out," Wrex said, crunching through a varren vertebrae. "I swear, on the SR1? You would not believe the amount of pining I had to put up with. Garrus and Shepard working on that Mako, both of 'em flirting, neither of them noticing, and Tali over to the side just _fidgeting_ at both of them." He mimed wringing his hands, and Liara's eyes crinkled in amusement as she popped a grape in her mouth. "Was ready to lock them all in the Mako with a case of beer until someone came up pregnant."

Liara squinted a bit, and he waved a hand. "You know what I mean."

"I know." Liara went to finish making her tea, and Wrex used the last skewer to sweep the last bite of eggs into his mouth. He belched contentedly and was contemplating some of the leftover pizza when Liara returned with her steaming mug. "It did take them longer than I expected, though. Speaking of--" She pulled up her 'tool and flicked her fingers. "The Broker does pay her debts."

Wrex looked down at his own and snorted a laugh at the fifty credits she'd sent. He'd almost forgotten about that wager, not that he'd admit it.

Then his eye caught on several messages from Bakara--labeled with increasing urgency and the last one just titled "WREX, PAY ATTENTION!"--then another from his commanders on Palaven, and sorting all that out took an hour or so and all the cold pizza. By that time, more people had started crawling out of wherever they'd passed out, lured by the smell of coffee and whatever Vega was still cooking, but still no Shepard or Garrus or Tali.

If they slept in much longer, Wrex would have to leave without mocking them properly, and that just wouldn't do. He heaved himself to his feet and headed up the stairs to thump a fist on the closed bedroom door. "Shepard! Food!" 

A few groans and a lot of thumping happened inside, as if someone--or several someones--had fallen bonelessly out of bed onto the floor. A muddle of voices followed, then a lot of groaning and a distinctly displeased turian bass tone.

Wrex just leaned on the wall to the side of the door, waiting.

Garrus was evidently feeling the perkiest, opening the door in his pants and shirt from last night. He yawned, bare toes tapping against the floor as he scratched his neck. "Morning, Wrex."

"Garrus. Sleep well?"

Garrus smiled, mandibles wiggling, his reply dipping into registers Wrex knew most aliens couldn't hear. Wrex didn't know the direct translation, but he knew it was both complimentary and filthy.

"You know I can hear all your undertones, right?"

Garrus stopped in the middle of scratching and then shrugged. "I stand by it." He headed for the stairs. "Did they drink all the coffee yet?"

"Might've."

"Damn...," the turian sighed as he started down the stairs. "Oh wait, I don't drink coffee...."

"Oh, keelah." Tali was the next to creep out, stopping as she clutched the doorframe. Her helmet swiveled unsteadily to look in Wrex's direction. "I. Am going. To die."

Wrex pushed away from the wall. "Aw, c'mon, they couldn't have been that bad of a lay. Garrus seemed pretty pleased with himself."

It was a sign of how poorly she was feeling that Tali didn't even react to the teasing. She just whined faintly, groping for a hold on Wrex's armor and using it to steady herself. Her weight didn't even really register to Wrex' s balance. "I'm going to die, Wrex."

"Lightweight," Wrex said, fondly. "Getting wasted on turian brandy. Bet you didn't even have more than one bottle."

"Uuuuugh, you're so mean." Tali patted at his pauldron. Or maybe she was trying to hit him, Wrex wasn't sure. She leaned one way, almost fell, and clung to Wrex until she could steady herself and finally stumble toward the couch in the hall. "I'm going...to stay right here. Right here. And see if my suit can make any stronger anti-emetics."

A toilet flushed from further in the bedoom, and Shepard finally came walking out in tanktop and her dress uniform pants, looking rumpled and self-satisfied, best Wrex could tell.

Wrex made a show of looking over her shoulder. "Bed must be gettin' crowded, Shepard. You got the prothean in there, too?"

"Ugh," Shepard said, her face scrunching up in that expressive way humans could do.

Wrex sighed, shaking his head. "You don't take me to the casino, you don't invite me to the orgy.... Uh huh, I see how it is, Shepard."

"Pffft." Shepard shook her head, running her hands through her hair until it all mostly leaned the right way. Then she thumped a fist on Wrex's shoulder. "What can I say, Wrex, you're just too much krogan for me."

"Damn straight."

Shepard's grin turned impish as she headed toward the couch. "Besides, I wouldn't want all those lady krogan admirers of yours to think I'm cutting in line."

Wrex winced. He'd almost forgotten about that. Grunt had had to turn away at least a dozen last night, and he'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one determined female waiting in the lobby downstairs.

Shepard laid a hand on Tali's shoulder, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. "You...good?"

Tali turned into her, arm going around Shepard's waist, helm tucking into Shepard's torso. "I am going to die, Shepard."

"OK. But you're good?" 

Tali chuckled, a smile in her voice. "I'm good."

"Anything I can get you?"

"...some water? I think my suit drained its entire reservoir trying to keep me from dehydrating last night."

"You got it." Shepard eased a hand down Tali's arm and backed away. She was probably heading for the stairs behind Wrex, but she just...stopped, standing looking at Tali for a moment.

Then Liara came up the opposite stairs, waving at Shepard and laying a hand on Tali's shoulder, saying something quietly. Vega yelped for some reason from the kitchen, followed by the bang of a pan and a hiss. Several voices replied to the noise in various states of awakeness and profanity. Garrus' voice was moving around, arguing loudly with what sounded like Joker. 

Wrex watched Shepard just stand there, shoulders relaxed, eyes at half-mast, her mouth pulling into a half-smile. Taking it all in.

The krogan had lots of stories about fighting, and battle prowess, and Clan. In a lot of them, those things were intertwined in ways the other races just didn't quite get. The turians were closest, as much as it galled Wrex to admit it, with their all-one-Clan Hierarchy thing they had going. But that was too big to do the same thing, in Wrex's view. Just one of the many things turians got wrong. You _could_ try to fight for your whole race, but it was hard for something that big to give you the fire you needed. You needed something small enough to picture, small enough to keep in your hearts all at once. That was what your Clan was about.

Shepard's Clan was a good one. Fierce. Tough. Bit small. But that was all right. It was...human-sized. Humans did only have one heart, after all.

Steps sounded on the stairs behind Wrex, and that was Garrus, carrying three mugs laced through his fingers--one with a turian-style top on it, one with a straw. He held the third out to Shepard, then moved over to offer Tali the other. The quarian soberly told him that she loved him a lot and then fit the straw into one of the ports on her helm

Shepard moved back to the couch, one arm going around Tali's shoulders and the other around Garrus' waist. She said something low that Wrex didn't hear, and Garrus chuckled.

Wrex had been a bit concerned about Shepard. She was tough, resourceful, almost krogan in her ability to survive. But the Reapers were something else. Something different than Saren or Sovereign or the Collectors. The Reapers were death on an industrial scale. And though krogan faced death with as much equanimity as they did their next meal, even the best humans could get all sketchy about it. Their minds could get all illogical and stupid when death stared them in the face.

He should have known better. Death out there waiting for her, and here Shepard was, heart blazing away. A beacon for everyone around her.

She'd be okay, Wrex decided with a satisfied nod. She might die. They might all die. But she'd be okay.

 _Sometimes_ , he thought as he pushed off from the wall and headed for the stairs, _that's all you need._


End file.
